70+ Ways to Make Money on The Side

Check out all these ways to make money below! All 60+ side hustles ever featured on this blog, plus other fascinating jobs people have tried full-time as well (along with yours truly).

You’ll find everything from worm counting to taste testing, craps dealing, mystery shopping, car washing, working in the circus, playing poker, and even the most popular of all hustles ever listed here: being a “phone actress” (aka phone sex operator! Haha…). And there will be more to come :)

60+ Ways to Make Money on The Side

If there’s a way to make money, people are trying it! And here’s a list of all the jobs we’ve shared on this site over the years… if you’ve got an interesting gig of your own, do let us know!

Side Hustle Fails

While we mainly focus on the gigs that WORK OUT and earn you money, we have featured some stories here of those times it did not. To help keep things in perspective since not everything can obviously be rainbows and lollypops ;)

Hey, no one ever said making money on the side was easy! And then here’s something to keep in mind too: When to Quit a Side Hustle

Other Interesting (Full-Time) jobs

Since our series on Side Hustles here have been uber successful (I can’t believe I just used “uber!”), we’ve been getting a lot of submissions on other interesting jobs too. Those that people do full-time for a living. So here are some of those for your educational/entertainment needs ;)

J. Money Jobs

Lastly, here’s a list of all 30+ jobs I (J. Money) has ever done for money – in detail. Including some fairly unique ones as well: Timeshare Rep, TV Production Assistant, Totaled Car Washer, Stamp Factory Drone, Airline Worker, and now currently a professional blogger :)

I started this blog in February of ’08 simply as a hobby, and two years later it became my full-time “job.” when I realized there was money to be made (a total fluke that I jumped all over!) Now, 4 years after that, here we still are and having the time of my life. So you really never know what opportunities are around the corner when you start hustling. But you do need to grab them when they cross your path.

Gigs For Goals?

Before we go here, just wanted to share with you a great mindset to get into to help motivate your side hustlin’ even more. I call it the “Gigs For Goals” mindset and the idea behind it is that you attach all gigs of yours to a specific bill or a future want/need. If you can match them up to break even, you’re golden! If you fall short, you need to re-arrange your wants and/or start bringing in higher income streams to match ’em. It looks like this:

Something to keep in mind, anyways :)

We’ll keep adding to this list over time, but as you can see there are a TON of different ways to make money on the side during your free time. And hey, you never know – it can always turn into a full-time job too if you get lucky! (That is, if you WANT it to, haha.. some of these are purely for the extra cash, as you can probably tell ;)).

If you have any interesting jobs yourself you’d like to share, hit me up here. We’ll post it up on the site and make you famous too.

Keep on hustlin’!

——–PS: If you’re interested in learning which of these hustles are the most popular, and other fun comparisons, check out this post I wrote up on it: Side Hustle Nation, Represent!

Great list! I just started my financial website (still not live yet), and one of my side hustles is working for a company that hires teachers to teach English via Skype. 10-15 hours per week, making $10 a lesson. It’s great, since my mortgage was so cheap, that side hustle alone pays it off each month! Other side hustles include: adjunct professor for community colleges and a freelance writer.

Whoa. Epic list! I love the Chick-fil-a cow mascot :) Makes me think of all the side hustles I’ve had… my favorite was when I used to introduce myself as a commissioned painter and ended up closing a few deals that way. When I got to the point where I was painting portraits of people’s dogs that had passed away, I realized that I no longer enjoyed what I did :P

I think this site is awesome! You really do motivate people and give them good advice on how to make money. I appreciate a great mind its really sexy;) Keep doin what you do, you have alot of positivity and loyal followers. On my way to setting some goals i feel very motivated. <3TheVoice

I love seeing all this info in one place! I’m not sure about being a worm counter though…lol! Yesterday I did a side hustle helping out at a corporate team building event. $25/hour for six hours. Luckily I got to do it with friends and for a friend, so it was a pretty fun day, but lots of manual labor upfront so I’m sore!

What a brilliant list of fun and interesting hustles! Not been through them all yet so not entirely sure there’s one in there I could try, although since you intend to add to the list, there could be a chance I’ll find one! Keep up the great work!

J$, you’ve built a very valuable resource here for your readers. The motivation alone from seeing that other people are making money on the side is just the tip of the iceberg… not to mention the tips and tricks that can be picked up from all of these posts. Thanks!

Great list…a few are a bit humorous. Nevertheless, side money is still side money. An I am a firm believer that everyone should have something they do on the side. From my own personal experience, having something on the side helps takes the pressure of the main income source (both mentally and financially). If all you have is a single source of income, and if for whatever reason that source of income is threatened, the news is almost always devastating and life changing.
AFFJ

This is a really great list J Money, I’ve started looking into the USA Triathlon coaching as well as freelance writing as well. There are so many options and this list is great for anyone in graduate school looking to make some cash on the side.

Love all these suggestions. I’ll add Swim Coach here. As a person who has just taken up triathlons and is slightly tired of swallowing a lot of pool water, there’s definitely money to be made before and after your 9-5 job.

For now I’m content in helping my mom with her side hustle – cooking and delivering home-cooked food to our loyal customers. She’s been telling them they should know how to cook for themselves too ‘coz she’s not getting any yougner. hehehehe

We’ve created a blog for her recipes, so we (me and my sis) have something to share with our friends and relatives who don’t live her in the Philippines. =)

Woah! Thanks for the reply. And so sorry it took me almost 3 years to come back here and check your response.

We’re still hustling sir – me, my mom and my sis. We still cook for order on the side, but me and my sis have day jobs. =)

I’ve tried the Craigslist gig (freelance writing and blogging for clients) as well as Freelance Writing on the side occasionally. They help augment income and when there’s a steady flow of clients, even just 3-5 clients, it truly helps.

I hope others will try and improve their income too. Your list helps tremendously especially in giving readers a means of trying opportunities they think they are good at.

Hey, J, my husband does voice over work as a side, hustle. He made $1000 last month doing 2 jobs. He’s an entertainer/went to school for broadcast, but anyone w a great speaking voice can do it. Voice123.com. Get hustlin’

Love it! I’ve been trying to get one of my friends’ wife to share her story with voice overs so far (she only started a few months ago and has already made a few thousand) but if she bails I’ll be hitting you/your husband up to write it instead :) It’s a fascinating hustle!

Yeah! I literally JUST got an email from someone on this actually… He’s in the process of writing up some info on it for me to pass around – good one :) I always thought it was a volunteer job for some reason?

Hi J. Money. I graduated from college about a year ago. I am work as a sales man in a pharmacy store. I am passionate about getting credible information about managing my finances.I just stumbled on your site. I observed that you respond to comments from each one of your readers. I confident you site will be enriching. Let me mention that I am Nigerian, and resident in Nigeria.

Nice to meet you Ofem :) Poke around and see if you get motivated here! The nice thing about $$$ is that it works the same here in the US as it does all over the world once you get the hang of it. Just have to make it a priority to get things rockin’. Good luck!

I do a lot of babysitting as a side hustle. Would find that I wasted a lot of time just watching TV while the kids were asleep so now I’ve started knitting and crocheting and selling my projects online :)

This is a great list; I have worked as a professional organizer. The work entails creating structure and routine in people’s homes; this would include organizing closets, pantries, etc. I have being paid between $10-20 per hour. I get great referrals; the work is rewarding and my clients are happy.

Thanks JMoney, love that this list has been written from the preverbial ‘horses mouth’ which is encouraging and such great details as to how to get started. I have been looking into voice work and chat line work as made quite a bit of money on fiverr recording simple narration/voicemail greetings/poetry and property details.

This is an awesome post bro!! I’ve now read most of these articles. The phone sex one was crazy!!! I didn’t see social media marketing for businesses. I started it as a side biz and now it’s my main income. Great post and blog! I’ve read a lot of your stuff now. Thank you for sharing all the amazing info!

Great ideas!!! I’ve been thinking lately about doing a children’s book. What a coincidence that it’s on your list. I have a couple in my head already that I haven’t gotten around to writing yet, I guess I should get on it pretty soon.

Well JMoney, I’m convinced that if everyone had access to your words of wisdom and an ounce of motivation. The nation’s unemployment rate would plummet. Eventually, becoming a non-existent figment of our imaginations!
Anyways, what an epic list of ideas to make some extra $$$$, and really simple tool to put them “extra” $$$, back to work for you. (Paying bills, living expenses, etc.) Rather than thinking of it as “extra” $$$, and blowing it on “Pop Rocks” and “Red Bulls” putit towards your debts, towards your principal, it’s amazing what even $20 extra a month can do to a loan. Besides, we all know that such a thing like “extra” $$ doesn’t even exist!

I like to seek out opportunities for residual income. The best example I heard quoted about residual income, “Don’t sell your land so they can build a bridge over it, even if they offer you more than it’s worth. Tell them, they can build the bridge across the land for free and they will pay you 10¢ for every car that drives over that bridge.”

Ok, that’s enough, some side hustles I enjoy, invested in another house fixer upper rented now by the same awesome tenants for 3 years(got lucky). $600.00 month.
24/7 fitness club owner, $400.00 month, basically cleaning and complete insurance paperwork, no employees needed.
In home pc repair $1000+ yearly.
Instruct a Therapeutic Interventions and Personal Safety Techniques class for people working with the developmentally delayed population $450.00 class, 4 times a year.
And of course my newest addiction thanks to JMoney, silver hunting, so far, $75.00 profit 3 weeks.

Keep up the stellar work bro. Thanks for all the free words to financial bliss. God Bless!

I stumbled along this site from afford anything. I’ve been in a huge rut as far as making extra money. Reading just this article alone has lit a fire under me to pursue a “side hustle”. I didn’t even know any of this even existed until about a week ago. Thank you J Money for posting all these different ways to earn income!

Nice! Haven’t heard of either of those sites, so appreciate you sharing them. We literally have 8 bins full of old kids clothes we need to go through this year, so this makes it a bit more exciting to start! :)

Probably those you can do online? Freelance writing, anything in social media, virtual assistance, etc… Check out Pat’s blog for a ton of ideas involving making money online: http://smartpassiveincome.com

You’re doing a good here! I have ideas, but i need a good web developer to help me buid my websites. The challenge is that I don’t have fund to build even one. I tried Bluehost but cann’t afford the $2.96/months for 36months=$106 cost. I can afford a per month billing or better still a patnership with the developer. Could you please give me a lead to a good web developer that I can work with? I’m in Nigeria.
Thanks for the great job.

Time to get scrappy! Start building it all out yourself with Wordpress or any other free software out there until you can get going and hire/partner with someone. Then you’ll not only have something to SHOW these guys, but it’ll also show *them* that you’re doing what it takes to make this vision of yours a reality and that you’re super passionate about it. Everyone has a million ideas out there and it would be awesome to have partners right fromt he start who believe in it and willing to jump in to build it for free/peanuts, but sadly it doesn’t usually work out that way. Gotta just get out there and start DOING IT and hack it together as you go… If it’s a good idea (and you’re truly passionate about it), you’ll find a way to make it work :)

Hah! Guess I should add that one to the list at some point, eh? :) In all honesty though, there are farrrr easier (and faster) ways to make money than w/ blogging, haha.. though it is fun and can open the doors to so many more things career-wise! (And life-wise too for that matter… all of my best friends came from the internet – hah!)

This was quite interesting to read. I had a great time clicking on a lot of the sites with links and reading about the information on how to begin and how to continue. I laughed at quite a few of the side hustles. Yet, they all seemed amazing.

This is by far the most comprehensive list of side hustles I’ve come across so far! Thank you for posting all of these ideas (and stories that go with them!). My mind is definitely racing with side hustles that will fit my schedule to help pay down my debt even faster!

That prob helps, yeah :) Also if you hustle hard during holidays and weekends and rush hours, at least from what I’ve read… I’ve never tried it as I’m always glued to my online hustles, but if you could actually do both at the same time that would be even better! Haha… Just bring a laptop and wifi hotspot with you while you’re waiting around town :)

Hi J. Money! Any thoughts or experience with renting your own personal paid-off car with Zipcar or Turo ? I’ve started using public transportation exclusively and would like to have my car put to use since it is now just sitting in the driveway. There is a lot of negative feedback out there regarding these type of companies, was hoping to hear from some first hand experience!

Oh man, I haven’t experimented with those myself, but I’m all about trying out new things! I feel like you really have to just give these things a shot to really find out if it’s something worthwhile or not, as too many people have skewed opinions and situations. Worse case you can always just stop and/or sell your car, right? So I say give it a shot for a month and then report back your findings ;)

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I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am not a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek a professional for any "real" advice. More info: privacy & disclosure page